A growing problem worldwide involves counterfeit electronic components, such as counterfeit integrated circuit chips or other semiconductor devices. Various inspection systems have been developed to try to combat this problem. For example, some inspection systems X-ray electronic components and determine whether the resulting X-ray images indicate that the electronic components are genuine or counterfeit.
Conventional inspection systems often suffer from various problems. For example, some conventional systems require operators to manually place electronic components onto trays, place the trays into inspection systems, and perform the same task repeatedly. These approaches are often costly and time-consuming and create wear-and-tear on the inspection systems by requiring constant opening and closing of doors, using servo motors to position electronic components, and powering inspection systems on and off. Moreover, these approaches often increase the risk of operators inadvertently damaging electronic components (such as via electrostatic discharges) and provide ergonomically poor environments for the operators.
In a reel-to-reel inspection system, electronic components are stored on or in a tape that is wound around a first reel. The tape can be unwound from the first reel, the electronic components can be examined, and the tape can be wound around a second reel. This can help to resolve various problems encountered using other types of inspection systems. However, there is currently no simple way to add reel-to-reel inspection capabilities to existing non-reel-to-reel inspection systems. Rather, an entirely new inspection system would typically need to be purchased.